Pity The Gelth
by aldursdisciple12
Summary: When old enemy of the Doctor's threatens the Potter children, will they listen to the strange man who offers them counsel? Sorry, I suck at summaries. Post Carriovile, but you don't really need to read that one first to understand this one. Rating is for language.
1. Chapter 1

Pity the Gelth

Alright, I don't own anything that you recognize. Don't sue. The Doctor belongs to the BBC. The Gelth belong to the BBC. Anything Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

This story takes place after "Carriovile".

Chapter One.

James Sirius Potter was bored. He had managed to convince his parents that he could watch over his two younger siblings while they were out. Harry was at a conference for the Ministry for the next week, and Ginny was visiting her friend Luna Lovegood, and helping her out while Luna was pregnant. He had thought that this would be great, that they could get up to mischief and do things that they normally wouldn't. But all Albus wanted to was read, and Lily was more interested in her summer assignments.

He sighed, and decided to go out for a walk. He left number 12 Grimmauld place, and started off for the park down the street. Harry kept commenting on how the street had changed over the last two decades, with a park, a store, and a funeral home nearby. James thought that living near a mortuary was neat. Even if his mother and brother thought that it was creepy, and always stayed on the other side of the street when they had to pass it. James could remember daring Lily to go in, when she was ten. She had done it, and been caught by the manager. Harry had grounded both of them for two weeks. James still thought it was worth it, hearing Lily scream. She thought the old man was an Inferius. He had felt bad at the time, but looking back, it was hilarious. Even Lily thought so, now.

The mortuary was an old place. Once it had been the home of a rather wealthy man. This man had lived in Cardiff, until his wife died. He had taken the body back to London and had buried her in the cemetery three blocks away. When the man died, he left the building to the city. And fifteen years ago the city had finally decided to do something with it, and they turned it into a funeral home. Until recently it had been the only other building (besides Grimmauld) to have gas lighting, but the muggle officials had recently decided to convert the site for electricity.

He was just past the building now, with trucks and workers starting to set up for the renovations. An old woman was walking slowly from the doors, staggering as though she was drunk. James noticed that she was awfully pale.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" He asked politely. She didn't respond, and continued to walk, heading towards him. James repeated his question, and still didn't get an answer. She had walked past him, and was now drawing up to where 12 Grimmauld place was. James was getting nervous. The old lady looked familiar somehow.

Lily opened the front door, and looked around. James called her name, and she turned her head towards him, and saw the old lady. Lily screamed.

"What the hell are you making that noise for?" James asked.

"That's Ms. Jones, from down the street!" Lily told him, as she began to search her pockets frantically.

"Yeah, so? That doesn't mean you can just scream at the sight of her," James had overtaken the old woman and took another look. It _was_ Ms. Jones. No wonder she had looked familiar, she had lived in the neighborhood for as long as James could remember.

"James, she died last week!" Lily was yelling at him, as she usually did when he was being particularly dense. "AHA!" she exclaimed, digging her wand out of her pocket.

"She WHAT!?" James yelled. There was a large flash of light that went right past his head, and he felt a rush of hot air blow past his head. The spell struck the old woman square in the chest.

"What are you doing?" Albus asked curiously as he stuck his head out of a window on the second floor.

"Trying to get rid of an Inferius-," James interrupted partway through Lily's explanation.

"What makes you think she's an Inferius?"

"She's dead, and she's walking. Therefore, Inferius. Except the spell didn't work!"

And indeed it hadn't. Ms. Jones hadn't reacted at all to the spell, other than to stop moving forward. But she was still alive, if that is the correct word to use. James cast a heat spell, one that his Defense against the Dark Arts teacher had taught him the year before. It was meant to sever the link between the dark wizard and the corpse that they had reanimated. But the old woman took no more notice than she had the ball of light that Lily had cast.

James was stunned. That spell should have worked. His teacher had given him full marks when they had practiced it in class, and he didn't think that he could have messed it up. Lily leapt off the stoop, and was now standing next to him.

"What are we going to do?" she whispered, suddenly sounding very much like his baby sister. James had no idea. But before they could do anything more, the corpse threw its head back and screamed, a bluish gas escaping from its mouth and disappearing. The body slumped to the ground. There was silence.

"Is it dead again?" Albus asked from his window.

"I think so," James said, but he didn't sound very sure.

"Well, make sure."

"And how am I supposed to do that? Poke her with a stick to see if she moves?" There was silence from above, and then…

"Sounds good to me. Need a stick?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" James exclaimed. He knelt down next to the body, and put his fingers on the corpse's throat, ignoring the disgusted noises that his siblings were making.

"No pulse, she's dead again."

"What are we going to do?" Albus asked from his lofty perch. "Cause I think the neighbors may notice a dead person in the street."

James levitated the body.

"We'll take her back to the morgue. Coming Lily?" His sister shuddered, and shook her head emphatically. James shrugged, and walked down the street, the dead body of Ms. Jones floating behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

Pity the Gelth: Chapter Two

"We cannot tell them!" James yelled at his siblings. They were assembled in his bedroom, Albus sitting on the bed, Lily leaning back in his desk chair.

"James, this is big. Bigger than when you blew up the entire collection of crystal balls in the Divination class. Bigger than when Lily put pink frilly robes on all the suits of armour. We have to tell Mom and Dad about this." Albus was about to get up and fetch the family's owl, when Lily stopped him.

"Albus, I think James is right. We got rid of the thing, and no one saw us. We haven't exposed magic, and that thing, while strange and unusual, wasn't an Inferius, so there is no threat of Dark magic. Why tell Mom and Dad, when they'll just ask us questions we can't answer? What if they think it's just another prank that James and I pulled off?"

Albus looked torn, but after another hour of talking it over, he agreed to keep his mouth shut, provided that if anything bad occurred as a result if this, he could confess everything to Harry and Ginny. Of course, being promised that Lily and James would do the bulk of his summer chores helped. Bribery always worked.

And it seemed as though James and Lily were right. They got through the rest of the day without any problems, and in the morning James woke up thinking that they had gotten away cleanly. But then the door-bell rang.

Lily was the one who answered the door. It was Ms. Jones.

"JAMES!" She screamed. Both of her older brothers were at the door in five seconds flat.

"Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit…" Albus was muttering nonstop until Lily smacked him in the back of his head.

"Thanks, I think," he muttered, rubbing his head.

"Help me," a piteous voice moaned, making the siblings jump.

"What was that?" Lily said nervously.

"I think it was her," James told her, staring at Ms. Jones.

"Impossible. Inferi can't talk," Albus told them.

"Help me," came the voice again, and there was no denying the source. It was Ms. Jones.

"Yeah, that was her," James muttered, before raising his voice to normal conversational levels. "What are you, and how are we supposed to help?"

"We are the Gelth," moaned the dead woman.

"We?" Albus repeated. "What do you mean, _we_?"

"We are the Gelth. Once we were many, but now we are dying. Help us."

"How are we supposed to help?" Lily asked.

"You have bodies like this. Give them to us."

"Give you the dead bodies? Are you mental?" Albus was incredulous.

"Umm, can we have a moment please?" James asked, before shutting the door on Ms. Jones. He turned to the others. "What do you think?"

"It's gross." Lily said. "But it makes sense, I guess. I mean, it's not like we're using the dead bodies."

"And how are we supposed to pull this off? I mean, Ms. Jones still has family in this area of town. What if one of them sees her?" Albus didn't think this was a good idea. "Not only that, but we're just kids. What right do we have to make this decision?"

"Would you rather send them to the Ministry? What if they decide to kill them all? That would be our fault." Lily retorted.

James was silent, thinking it over. Both his siblings had good points.

"What if we tell them that they can have the bodies already in the mortuary? Then they can take them to the Ministry and plead their own case." he suggested.

"We need more information," Albus mused. "We don't know how they got here, how they are possessing the dead… We need to talk to Ms. Jones again."

They opened the door again.

"I'm sorry, but we were wondering how you are doing this. Riding around in the dead, I mean." Albus asked.

"We were transformed. A man, and his companion, turned us into gas. Few survived the process. And now they wish to replace the gas that is our home. We need to find a new home to live in. Please help us."

"But why the bodies?" Albus asked again.

"Dead bodies release gas, and we can travel via the gas to the bodies."

"Who did this to you, and when was it?" James asked, trying to keep them on track and focused.

"The Doctor!" the Gelth hissed, spiting the word out. "He did this, in the town of Cardiff, long ago."

"Then how did you get here?" Albus wondered. James smacked his forehead. Why did Albus have to ask so many questions?

"We rode in the body of a woman. She had died that day, and we escaped the Doctor and his genocide. She was taken to London, and we came with her. Please, help us, we are running out of time!"

Then, she screamed, the blue gas leaving her body once again.

The three of them looked that the body lying on the sidewalk.

James sighed, and levitated her again, and took her body back to the mortuary.

"This is getting really old…" he muttered to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

Pity the Gelth: Chapter Three

Albus walked into the muggle library feeling very out of place. Yes, Aunt Hermione did take them to muggle locations in order to teach them about the other culture, but they didn't go often, and never alone. But they needed information on the Gelth, and he doubted they would find it in a wizarding library.

After five hours of searching, though, he was ready to admit defeat. All he had by way of notes were what the Gelth had told them. He couldn't find anything that directly confirmed or denied the story they were given. Cardiff had gas powered lights in that time, and while there wasn't any mention of the Gelth in any sources he could find, that wasn't surprising. The muggle world could be dense, and not noticing something strange did not mean that it never happened. He locked himself in a stall in the bathroom and pulled out his enchanted mirror. His entire family had one, and they could be used to communicate with everyone, or just a few people, whichever was needed. In this case, the only people he wanted to talk to were his brother and sister. After relaying the fact that he had nothing, he left, ignoring the strange looks of the man also occupying the bathroom.

He hadn't gone far before a tall skinny man in a suit and trench coat came running up behind him.

"Kid! Hey kid!" he yelled.

Albus turned around to find that the man was waving about a handful of paper, which looked familiar

"Hey, you left these on your table in the library!" The stranger handed the stack of papers to Albus. Sure enough, they were covered in his handwriting.

"Thanks," Albus told him, before continuing on his way home.

"I noticed that you were doing research on the Gelth," the man continued. "I didn't know of anyone else besides me who knew about them."

"You know about the Gelth?"

"They're an old family story. I could tell you, if you like."

"That… would be good," Albus said slowly, thinking furiously. He didn't know this man, or anything about him. He could be a murderer, kidnapper, or worse. But he'd hit a brick wall with the research, and they could use the help. Besides, it wasn't like he or his siblings were helpless… And the man seemed likeable. Without knowing why, Albus just trusted this stranger instinctively.

"I was going home to my brother and sister. Would you be able to come with me? I don't want to have to repeat myself and possibly miss something." The man grinned, and Albus found himself smiling back.

"Sure thing. What's your name?"

"Albus Potter. You?"

"John Smith"

They arrived at Grimmauld Place, and Albus lifted the magical protections on the house. John seemed impressed, but not shocked or surprised. The front door opened before they got more than half way up the stairs.

"Who's this?" James asked bluntly.

"Hi, John Smith," the man smiled, putting his hand out and shaking James' quite vigourously. "Found your brother's notes at the library, saw the word Gelth, and got all excited! Never met anyone else who knew about the Gelth before."

"I thought he could give us some information, since the library was a bust," Albus told his brother as he gestured John into the house, closing the door behind him. "Is Lily home?"

"Yes, and who's this?" Lily asked, poking her head out of the doorway. Albus caught her up, and they all moved into the living room. James and Lily took the couch, Albus leaned against the doorway, and John sat in the big comfy easy chair.

"Alright, talk. What do you know about the Gelth?" James asked. John opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, there was a knock at the door.

"Now what?" James muttered as he got up and went to open the door. "Mrs. Jones, of course. It's great to see you, we have a couple of questions for you."

"We do?" Albus whispered to Lily.

"We came up with them while you were in the library," she whispered back as James led Mrs. Jones into the living room.

"So, what we were wondering," James said as he walked back to the couch "is how, exactly, we can help you? I mean, we're just a bunch of kids, we can't make those kinds of decisions. The Ministry of Magic could, but they won't take too kindly to you showing up in a bunch of corpses."

"We could… use your body." The Gelth told him. "We could use your body and mouth, with your permission. You could help us. Several of our number have already perished from the work being done, you could take all of us with you, no need for the dead."

"How?" Lily asked. "He isn't dead."

"We can feed off the magic in his body. It wouldn't be permanent," The Gelth held a hand up as all three children (and one adult) began protesting. "It would regenerate quickly. But it would allow a living host to transport us, and it would not be as limited as these bodies are. We would be able to cohabit for hours, perhaps days, instead of minutes."

"And what will his fate be, to be possessed for hours, perhaps days?" John spoke for the first time since the Gelth had arrived, standing up from the chair. "Will he end up like Gwyneth?"

"What do you mean?" Lily asked. "Who's Gwyneth?"

But before he could answer, the Gelth screamed.

"We do not have much more time! Hurry, decide, and help us!"

Mrs. Jones's body fell to the floor. Albus wondered if they should just leave it there, as the Gelth would be back to speak to them (and although the neighbours so far hadn't noticed the dead woman walking the streets, it surely was only a matter of time). But before he could make the suggestion, the silence was broken.

"Who is Gwyneth?" James asked, staring at John, who had sat down again after the Gelth had left. "And how do you know of the Gelth?"

John took a deep breath, and began his story.

_It was in Cardiff, a long time ago. My… great great grandfather met this woman, Gwyneth, who could speak with the dead. The dead wanted her to help them gain bodies, told her they were angels who needed her help. But they were no angels. They told her they were few in number, and when they used her body as a conduit, there were more of them then they had said. Their passage killed her, but their presence also kept her alive. She saw that they would take over the world, kill everyone so that they may use the fresh bodies, and she stopped them. She sacrificed herself to save the world. He had thought them gone for good, but if they have survived…_

His voice trailed off, and it took the children a moment to realize that his tale was done.

"That's it?" James asked, incredulously. "All you have is a story told to you that had been passed on for several generations? That's what you want to condemn these people to a nonexistence for?"

"They will turn against you! They will destroy you and your world, like they tried to back then!"

James didn't believe him. "This is because they aren't human, isn't it? You look at something alien to you, and you mistrust it, because its intelligence doesn't come in a familiar shape!" he accused.

"No! No, that's the farthest thing from the truth!" John yelled at him, raising out of the chair. "I want to help you, but until you decide you want that help, there isn't much point in my being here." He pulled out a piece of paper from his coat pocket and wrote a number on it.

"When you change your mind, give me a call. Hopefully, that will be before the world burns to ash." And with that, John left the house.

The three of them stared at each other for a moment, then began arguing about what to do. After a little while, Albus, who had been keeping himself out of the discussion, slipped out of the house.

While he was gone, Lily and James finally came to a conclusion.

"So it's agreed," James said, a bit tiredly. "We help them. We take the Gelth to the Ministry and we save them.


	4. Chapter 4

Pity the Gelth: Chapter Four

Albus walked down the street. He'd been thinking while his brother and sister had been discussing the Gelth. There was something about how Smith had told the story of the Gelth. He had heard stories from his parents about the war, and he had heard at school stories about how Hogwarts had been founded. Stories told by those that had been there, and stories told by people who themselves had been told these stories. Smith's story had been told more like the first kind, than the latter.

He stopped when he came to a pay phone. Aunt Hermione had insisted that he know how to use one, so that in an emergency he could call her parents if he got lost in the muggle world. The phone rang a couple of times, and he heard a voice on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Smith, it's Albus. Can we talk?"

At the coffee shop a twenty minute stroll away, Albus and John sat down with two cups of tea.

"I'm glad you called, Albus. After I left, I realized that I was making a decision based entirely on what the Gelth had said right then. You never said what they had told you before." John said once the waitress had left. "But first, what did you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to hear how you knew of the Gelth." John frowned, confused.

"I've already told you all I know, everything that has been passed down."

Albus looked into his cup. "I don't think that's true. I've heard people tell me things that happened to them, and I've heard them tell me things that happened long ago. The way you told us about the Gelth… It sounded more like as if it had happened to you. Not your ancestor." Smith put his cup down gently.

"Albus, I think you should tell me what the Gelth told you. I have a feeling it will be very important." Albus was a bit confused.

"But you read my notes. You already know everything I do"

"Weelll, I may have gotten a bit excited when I saw the word Gelth. And I _may_ have just dashed off after that."

"There wasn't much more," Albus pursed his lips, thinking back over the day. "She said that there were once many of them, but they are now mostly gone. They were stopped back in the mid 1800's, by a man called the Doctor, and a friend of his…" his voice trailed off.

"What?" John asked.

"Nothing. It's just, I met a man recently. He called himself the Doctor as well. But it can't be the same man," Albus shook his head. "He'd be well over one hundred and fifty by this point, if he was even still alive."

Smith's lips twitched, almost into a smile, before asking what else the Gelth had said.

"They were transformed into a gas form by the Doctor, and now the gas in the houses where they are trapped is about to be replaced. If this happens before they have a chance to leave in a body then they will all die. That's why they want to use the dead, why we can't make that decision. This is big. Really big."

"I agree. Albus-" Before Smith could continue, a small voice issued from Albus' pocket.

"Damn, it's James. Hang on, I'll be right back." Albus got up and headed into the bathroom. Once in, he pulled the mirror out of his pocket. "What do you want James?"

"First, to know where the hell you are. Second, Lily and I came to an arrangement. We are going ahead. We're going to help the Gelth. We need you to get home; we may need help getting the Gelth into my body."

"James, I don't know if we should do this. We don't have any proof that they are telling us the truth. What if Smith is right? You could die!"

James glared at his brother through the glass.

"Dad would help them, and so am I! I'm the only one that can help them. I'm older, and I won't let you or Lily put yourselves in harm's way-"

"So you admit that this could be dangerous!"

"No more than quidditch, and I don't see either of you trying to keep me off the pitch! This is no longer up for debate Albus! _I'M _the one who is going to channel the Gelth and take them to the Ministry, so _MY _opinion is the only one that matters! Now get home, now!" With that, the connection ended, and no matter what Albus did, the mirror remained blank. Scowling, he left the bathroom and rejoined Smith.

"What's wrong?" Smith asked, seeing the look on Albus' face.

"They're going to do it. And I think they're starting now."

Smith leapt to his feet and ran out of the shop, leaving Albus standing there, shocked, before dashing back seconds later.

"You coming or what? I can't get in the house without you!" Albus snapped out of it, and raced after him.

John and Albus burst through the front door of number 12 Grimmauld Place. Albus was a bit out of breath, while John looked as though he could have kept going for hours more. But they were too late. As they watched, the blue gas was rising from the body of Mrs. Jones, and travelling towards James. As well, there was gas coming from the lights, also heading towards the boy.

"STOP!" Smith yelled. "James, let go of the connection! Stop this! Can't you see, you can't hold that many Gelth! Not alive, at any rate. Let them go!"

"It's too late! The work on the funeral home has started. The gas is all drained, all the Gelth are here now! I'm their last hope!" James shouted at him, Gelth being absorbed into his body.

"They told you there weren't many of them, that they were few in number," Smith said softly. "But how many of them are you holding now? 100? 200? 1000?" His voice grew harder, and now he addressed the Gelth themselves. "Stop. This. NOW!"

James' eyes widened as Gelth continued to stream into him. He was surrounded by a blue haze that only grew, even as he struggled against it.

"I can't" he shouted. "I can't stop them!"

And then, the light changed. The gas lighting in the house began to dim as more blue Gelth entered the halo around James, before turning a dark, angry red. James began to scream…


	5. Chapter 5

Pity the Gelth: Chapter Five

"What do we do?" Lily cried over her brother's screams. "How do we stop them? How did Gwyneth keep them from invading the first time?"  
"Oh, sure now you believe me. Why can't believing ever come first, just once, and arguing after the day has been saved," Smith muttered, before answering Lily's question. "Gwyneth saved us with fire. Dickens drew the Gelth out by opening the gas lines, and when the cellar filled with gas, she lit a match and blew the whole building up. She was dead already, but she held on long enough to save the world. We barely got out alive…"

Albus choked at the wording, but before he could say anything, Lily spoke up.

"THAT ISN'T AN OPTION!" Lily shouted at Smith. "We are NOT burning my brother!"

"Well, I'm open to suggestions!" Smith yelled back. "But we don't have long."

"What if," Albus began, then stopped when they both turned to look at him, "what if we use magic to draw the gas out and contain it somehow?"

"That will definitely work!" Smith said. Lily smiled, but the smile began to slip as he continued. "Weell, it will most likely work. Probably. If we're lucky!"

"Albus, go get the garbage bin." Lily ordered, rolling up her sleeves and brandishing her wand. Albus did as he was told. You did NOT mess with Lily when she started to look like Grandma Weasley.

When he raced back with the bin she began to siphon the gas into the barrel, while Albus darted off again for a moment.

"I was turning the gas off," he said, in answer to Lily's questioning look, before casting a spell on the bin. The shimmering of the gas was soon joined by the red forms of the Gelth, and Albus began helping Lily with the Gelth and gas. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the gas and Gelth stopped pouring in. James fell to the floor. Lily cried out, and before the younger Potter children could move, Smith knelt next to him, fingers pressed to his neck.

"He's alive," he reported, "now how are you going to deal with that." He nodded to the bin.

Half an hour later, the bin was still on fire. The four of them were sitting on the floor, sipping hot chocolate. Smith had a marshmallow on a stick close to the bin, toasting it with the heat being released.

"How long do you think it'll burn?" James asked. He'd regained consciousness after 3 minutes, to see John toss a match into the family garbage bin.

"No idea," Lily shrugged. "We don't know how big the interior got when Albus charmed it. And we don't know how long it takes Gelth to burn."

"What _I _want to know is, are there any left?" John said around a mouthful of gooey marshmallow. "I would hate to have to deal with them for the th- second time."

"I meant to ask," Albus remarked, as if talking to himself, "how did you know the notes were mine? You read them after I left the table. So how did you know to chase me down, instead of any of the other people in the building?"

"You put your name on it." John told him, putting another marshmallow on the stick.

"Okay, but how did you know it was me? And what did you mean by 'we barely got out alive'?"

It took his siblings a moment to figure out what the implications of that were.

"If you were there, why didn't the Gelth recognize you?" Lily asked.

"And how are you not dead? Or horrendously old?" James muttered.

"I looked different then," John answered Lily's question, popping the newly toasted marshmallow into his mouth. "And who says I'm not horrendously old?" he asked James, with his mouth full. He swallowed. "And I knew to look for your, Albus, because I already know what you look like. After all, we have met before." He stood up.

"Well, I should be off. All the Gelth were contained in the barrel, so when the fire dies down you should be good to go. Thanks for your help; it's nice to solve a problem without destroying a building." He grinned at them. "It was lovely to see you again Albus, and nice to meet you, James and Lily. Great to know the Carriovile kept its word." And with that, he waved and left.

"When did you two meet? I thought you had never met him before." James asked Albus. "And what's a Carriovile?"

Albus ignored his brother, getting up and running to the door, leaving the house just in time to see the man in the suit unlocking a blue box that he hadn't really noticed before, but that, on reflection, had been there all along.

"Good bye, Doctor" He yelled. The Doctor smiled to himself, and stepped into the TARDIS.


End file.
